The extent of doctoral programmes in Finnish universities is usually 240 ECTS credits, of which the doctoral dissertation takes around 200 credits. The planned duration of doctoral studies is four years, if the candidate plans to study on full-time basis.
The 40 credits of courses consist typically of discipline-specific studies, general research studies or other transferable skills, depending on the programme. In addition to these, doctoral students have some teaching responsibilities. To read more about the structure of studies in doctoral programmes in mathematics offered in the four host organisations of FiRST, please click the links below.
Please also visit our Job opportunities page for any open calls for PhD student positions or to leave your "calling card" by filling our e-form.
Doctoral Researcher David Adame Carrillo from the Conformal Field Theory Research Group (Aalto University) talks about his experiences of doing a PhD in Finland.
“I was born and raised in Barcelona, Spain. I graduated from ETH Zürich and École Polytechnique Paris where I completed the joint master program in High-Energy Physics, and from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya where I completed the master program in Advanced Mathematics.
I got interested in Conformal Field Theory (CFT) during my master studies in Paris and, at about the same time, my academic interests took a turn from physics to mathematics. It was then that I found Kalle Kytölä's group, whose research focuses on the intersection of those two.
In the CFT research group and on my doctoral studies we focus on lattice models that physicists have described using Conformal Field Theory. Using techniques of discrete complex analysis, we reconstruct the algebraic content featured in CFT (Virasoro representation) on the space of local fields.
In a way, I found the research topic first and that led me to Finland. I was happy that I could do my PhD in the Helsinki region anyway — it's no secret that the quality of life is very high in the Nordics. Coming from a chaotic, messy city, it was, in some sense, a cultural shock for me to see how nice and safe Helsinki is. On the other hand, the cold dark winters can be shocking too; but there's no better scenario for a nice session of sauna and avanto (ice swimming)!
If everything goes well, I hope to continue in academia either in Finland or somewhere else after my graduation. But there is still a lot of work to be done before that!”